9 More Schools To Have Students Wear Uniforms

Convinced that behavior problems will drop and that school spirit will soar, nine south Palm Beach County schools will require students to wear uniforms next year.

Those schools join eight south county schools that require students to wear a uniform of solid-color shirts with a collar and solid-color or plaid pants, shorts or skirts.

The Palm Beach County School District created a minimum dress code in 1998, banning clothing that supports discrimination, is associated with gangs or is deemed offensive. That policy also forbids the showing of underwear and wearing hats or sunglasses.

Schools are free to create policies that are stricter, but suspensions are not allowed for dress-code violations.

"Girls wear short shorts and skirts and see-through tops," said Viki Holmquist, School Advisory Council chairwoman and a teacher at Omni Middle School in Boca Raton, where the council will vote later this month on whether to require uniforms. "Middle school already is a hormonal place to be without those distractions. It takes away from everybody's education."

Many parents and principals think the school district's rules don't go far enough in helping to avoid the appearance-related problems that school officials deal with each day. Teachers say that students judge one another by who's wearing the most expensive designer labels and that many of the clothing choices are offensive and distracting.

Robin Newman, a parent at Waters Edge Elementary west of Boca Raton, agrees that clothing can be a distraction. But she said parents should take responsibility for what their children wear.

"Uniforms take away freedom of choice," said Newman, who opposes Waters Edge's new uniform policy. "This is public school, and these are costs that are not supposed to be associated with public school."

Waters Edge's uniform policy requires students to wear collared shirts emblazoned with the Waters Edge logo. Students at Morikami Park Elementary west of Delray Beach also wear shirts with logos, as will students at Sandpiper Shores Elementary west of Boca Raton next year.

But most schools select outfits that are easily found at local stores. Hammock Pointe Elementary west of Boca Raton, where 76 percent of parents voted in favor of the new dress code, will require polo or Oxford shirts with slacks, shorts or skirts in plaid, white, blue, forest green or maroon.

Uniform proponents cite the reduced cost of the outfits -- about $175 a year compared with a traditional school wardrobe, which costs $300 to $600 a year. They also cite studies that show fewer discipline problems, improved attendance and better attitudes among students.

In Long Beach, Calif., school officials say school crime decreased 36 percent, fights declined 51 percent and sex offenses plummeted 74 percent in 1995, the year the district adopted a uniform policy.

Studies have not shown a clear reason why school discipline problems decline with uniforms. One study showed that teachers thought their uniformed students would perform better in school. Others have shown uniforms alone don't improve behavior, but a combination of stricter rules, heightened security and improved conflict-resolution education along with uniforms creates a better learning climate.

Not every school district has improved student obedience with uniforms. A study of Miami-Dade County schools showed fights almost doubled at middle schools that had adopted them.

However, Carver Middle School in Delray Beach reports success in the first year of its uniform policy. Although discipline comparisons to the previous year have not been documented statistically, Assistant Principal Paulette Wright said the results are clear.

"What students choose to wear seems to make a difference in their attitude," Wright said. "On the 10 days a year that we don't require uniforms, we have many more discipline problems than we usually do."

But the uniform policy also creates discipline problems. Wright said about 10 students are in her office each day to serve detentions because they violated the uniform code.

However, parents and teachers say uniforms are the first step toward school reform. They recently voted 228 to 78 to start a uniform policy next year at Eagles Landing Middle School west of Boca Raton. Principal Ira Margulies said the school's existing dress code was impossible to enforce.

"There was a lot of game-playing," he said. "If a girl was told she couldn't wear a tube top, she'd put a jacket on but take it off between classes. Or she'd take out a shirt she had in her backpack."

Margulies said he expects the outfits to create new problems.

"We tried hard to represent what people were looking for and to make it easily manageable at the same time," he said. "A majority of people are asking for this, but we'll end up dealing with the minority who feel it's too restrictive."

Lois Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6536.